Kazan Zhiganov Conservatory is the leading music university in Tatarstan. It trains future teachers, talented musicians, conductors, and art historians. For 70 years, KGC has trained 7,000 specialists, 90% of whom are successfully working in their speci alty. Today, about 650 students study at eight faculties.
Creation
The Kazan State Conservatory was created in 1945, a difficult year for the USSR. Initially, the classrooms were located in the old building (now the third educational building) - house 31 on Pushkin Street was built in 1914. The two-story building with a basement is made in a classical style. During the war, the premises were occupied by a hospital; after the opening of the conservatory, teachers lived and worked here. Until 1965, it was the only building of the educational institution. On the second floor there is a historical hall where all the concerts took place. In 2013, the hall was named after Rachmaninoff.
The first rector was Nazib Zhiganov. Having moved toKazan from Kazakhstan in 1928, he studied at the city musical college, from where he transferred to the Moscow State Conservatory. Tchaikovsky. Nazib Gayazovich became a key figure in the preservation and development of Tatar music. The first symphony of the master in 1938 was performed at a concert in the nascent Tatar State Philharmonic. A year later, his opera "Kachkyn" (which was a graduation work at the end of the Moscow Conservatory) actually became the first major production at the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theater. The maestro gave impetus to the development of modern musical life in Tatarstan. In 1944, Zhiganov petitioned for the creation of a national conservatory in Kazan. Despite the war, the authorities granted his request. The first 50 students began their studies on September 10, 1945. The rectorship of Nazib Gayazovich lasted more than forty years.
Now KGC is located in four buildings, which are also architectural monuments. The most beautiful is building No. 1, built in 1912 as the House of the Nobility according to the project of Aleshkevich. From 1922 to 1961, the regional committee of the CPSU of the Tatar ASSR was located here.
Education
In 2007, the Kazan Conservatory received the accreditation status of an academy, which implies the expansion of educational programs. Here they train in virtually all types of musical art: organ, piano, conducting, strings, percussion, wind, singing, ethnomusicology, ballet pedagogy, musicology, composition. The opening of a new speci alty - "musical sound engineering" is expected.
Additionally within the walls of the conservatorydeeply study the national music of the Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurts and other peoples. Students and teachers collect, decipher and carefully document folklore. The most interesting pieces are performed by the Tatar Music Orchestra.
Now the university has 625 students in 20 departments, many students from abroad. They are taught by about 200 teachers, including 11 doctors of science, 32 candidates, 40 professors and 50 associate professors. Every year more than a third of graduates graduate from KGC with honors. The prestige of the educational institution is evidenced by a rather high competition - more than 2.5 applicants for a place.
Faculties
Kazan Conservatory organizes education at 8 faculties:
- folk instruments;
- conductor-choir;
- piano;
- orchestral;
- vocal art;
- composer-theoretic;
- Tatar musical art;
- additional vocational education.
There are also interfaculty departments:
- intercultural communications and foreign languages;
- piano;
- chamber ensemble;
- performing art theory;
- humanities.
Historic mission
The Kazan Conservatory is of great importance for the Middle Volga region. Here they trained (and are preparing) personnel focused on the traditional music of the peoples of Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Bashkiria, Mari El,Mordovia, Chuvashia. Here studied the first composers - authors of national operas and ballets of the republics of the Kama and Volga regions. The work of the university made it possible to preserve and increase the musical heritage of the indigenous peoples of Central Russia.
At the origins of KGK and original performing schools are outstanding teachers invited by Nazib Zhiganov to Kazan from the capital's conservatories. Among them are composer A. S. Leman, wind players N. G. Zuevich, A. E. Gerontiev, pianist V. G. Apresov, conductor S. A. Kazachkov, cellist A. V. Broun, violinist N. V. Braude, musicologists G. V. Vinogradov, Ya. M. Girshman and others. Rubin Abdullin has been the head of the conservatory since 1988.
Here was born the skill of world famous composers and musicians Vladimir Vasiliev, Sofia Gubaidulina, Mikhail Pletnev, Oleg Lundstrem, pianists Yuri Yegorov and Mikhail Pletnev. It is no coincidence that the Kazan piano school in Russia is one of the most authoritative.
Development
The Kazan Conservatory continues to develop, the infrastructure is improving, new ones are being erected and historical buildings are being reconstructed. The construction of the Kazan Concert Hall in 1996 became a landmark cultural event against the background of the tendencies of those years to curtail state social programs. The luxurious hall, which has become an important landmark of Kazan, was built on the skeleton of a modest assembly hall of the conservatory, which for many decades was the heart of the city's concert life.
In 2010, high-level reconstruction work was carried out in the main building, whichcost 260 million rubles.
Innovation
Kazan Musical Conservatory has become a platform for experimental search for new creative directions and forms of training of composers, singers, musicologists, musicians of the highest qualification. An example is the Faculty of Tatar Musical Art, opened in the late 1990s. It studies the features of traditional Tatar musical culture, conducts interesting research that allows you to recreate ancient oriental instruments that have disappeared from musical life. The orchestra of Tatar music created at the faculty under the direction of Rinat Khalitov has already become the winner of two competitions.
Achievements
Music universities in Russia are famous for their graduates, who later became world stars. The main conservatory of Tatarstan also showed the world a galaxy of outstanding composers, musicians, art critics, conductors. In 1977, the KGZ was recognized as the best university of art at the creative competition "Window to Russia". More than 600 students and teachers have become laureates of international and national competitions over the past 5 years.
KGC's creative partners are: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris Conservatories, International Union of Musical Figures, London Royal Academy, Lübeck School of Music, French Music Center, Goethe Institute, Speyer Institute of Church Music, Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, publishing house "Composer" and others.
The way to the future
There is no corner within the walls of the conservatory whereit would be quiet. Music pours not only from the classrooms. Students catch a free minute to learn a new composition, repeat what they have learned, and polish their performing skills. Teachers are loyal to the "musical noise", even if it sometimes interferes with the classes. The principle of self-learning is widely practiced here. KGC has an excellent library, which is filled with applicants preparing for classes and seminars during school hours.
Students take responsibility for their education. They know why they came to the conservatory. They understand that the highest level of training in one of the most prestigious music universities in the country will allow them to perform in the best bands in the world, to play at famous concert venues. In the end, become talented teachers ourselves and raise a new generation of composers, singers and musicians.
